Before the Heat of Battle
by Moon Knightress
Summary: Before dawns early light, Bruce receives an unexpected visit from Selina Kyle and a choice of the heart that redefines both of their weary spirits...set during the Dark Knight Rises.
1. Chapter 1

**_Before the Heat of Battle_**

_Before dawns early light, Bruce receives an unexpected visit from Selina Kyle and a choice of the heart that redefines both of their weary spirits...set during the Dark Knight Rises.  
_

* * *

The sounds of the restless bats roosting in the rocky ceiling above broke the silence, Bruce stood on the black slated bridge with the cowl firmly grasped in his gloved hand as he closed his eyes listening to the dwellers of his dark sanctuary, flap their wings in distress as they sensed the changes in the air. Bruce imagined the deafening sounds of his city at the midnight hour, the blares of sirens echoing through the torn streets. Angry mobs invading stores, breaking glass with bricks and left out rumble from the Camo Tumblers paroling the streets and open firing at the stone walls of the downtown banks and tearing through whatever was left of Gotham's foundations of history while Bane overlook every detail of his war path with his hands pressed against the collar of his overcoat and with glint of smug, self-satisfied pride.

Bruce's gloved hands clenched into tight fists. He felt the blood pulse through his fingers. At dawn he would end the bloodshed on the streets. He would stand for every man, woman and children that saw the horrors of mask terrorists dreams and he would fight until his knuckles became raw and bloody.

He was ready to face is the masked general of devastation, chaos and brutality. This time he was prepared, stronger and fearless just like the first night when he donned the cape and cowl and took down Carmine Falcone. The same adrenaline flowed through every fiber of his body.

He had been training ceaselessly in the cave for hours before his final stand at City Hall, and the rigorous workouts of roundhouse kicks, cobra strikes, chin-ups and pushups had take it's toll on his stiff, scarred and ruined body. His lower back was burning with a dull, constant throb right into the bony ridges of his spine, his hands would grow numb and he felt the tingling of low circulation prickle at his fingertips without warning, he grew more exhausted then he used to. Even with the reinforced Kevlar armor protecting his body from the deathly blows and gun shots, he felt his age catching up to him, making him feel weaker, weaker than he ever had been in his prime. He lowered his eyes to the graphite mask and whispered with a weariness edging at his throat.

"How can I save Gotham?"

Bruce lifted his gaze, looking around the cave for the figure of conscience. It had been months since Alfred departed and he didn't know what to do, sure he had gone seven years without anyone from Gotham, not Alfred, not Rachel, not anyone, he knew how to survive, but for the last ten years, he had his guardian, and he realized one thing, when he was traveling the world, he had Alfred in spirit, he knew he could go back, keep in contact, he knew he could do anything and Alfred be there for him.

_I won't bury you...I've buried enough members of the Wayne family._

His gloved fingers drummed against the interior of his cowl, his marquise hazel eyes ere so focused on the eyes of his mask he didn't even realize how much time had passed, he had his lower legs on of his suit, his upper chest and arms had been covered in the body suit that would hold his armor in place, he didn't even realize that something had moved in the cave.

Bruce moved quickly to the armory case, leaning his brow against the cool glass as he felt the droplets of the left over water slope down his chiseled jaw, closing his eyes and listening to the hums of the generators and the rushing cascade of the cave's waterfall. It was dark and peaceful here. Sometimes after his nightly patrols when he was just starting out at Batman, he would sleep on fold out couch near the medical bay and sleep until the hours of twilight. Now, he found himself filled at an foreign sense of recalling the days before Bane when he kept himself as a grim, frail recluse trapped in the East Wing of his castle, forgotten and cursed with the guilt and failures of the choices of his life.

He spent many nights looking at the photo frames in the East Wing drawing room, as he walked into the night trying to gather up the pieces of his forgotten life. But then his self-imposing solitude had ended when he looked into those large, daring dark coffee brown eyes of the jewel thief wearing his mother's pearls around her statuette neck and taunting him like how a cat taunts a mouse, she give a reason without words to take another leap out into the world and chase her. When she stole from him, he laughed because he found it amusing on just how brazen she was towards his refined presence and how alive she made his dead soul feel when he breathed her in like a gust of fresh air. Bruce thought with a tiny smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, how amazing they could've been on the rooftops with and without the concealment of their masks.

He wondered if Selina Kyle ever thought of him. He thought of her for months when he was imprisoned in Bane's dark hell, more than Miranda Tate or Rachel. She had been strangely a soothing thought that clouded in his mind was a wave of comfort when he was bounded in the dirty cell and staring at the light beaming down at his broken form.

The dreams he had of her, when suck on the rust spring cot comforted his weary, tormented spirit because he felt her near him, close to his heart and that feeling made he feel not so alone in the darkness, not full of despair that most men in the pit died because of lost of hope. He couldn't understand or decode the reason why he was so connected with her. She was everything he stood against, a daughter of criminally, a woman with her own code of ethics and a risk taker that laughed at death in face as it became her greatest fan. Most of their interactions had included her playing with his emotions, laughing gleefully at him while attempting to steal everything he owned including what was in his pants. But, despite her bold attitude and recklessness, he found himself thinking about her, those large dark, alluring brown eyes that held the shadows as her own. The red lips of ruby shade and the paleness of the skin that made her enchanting in the moonlight and the light purr in her voice and how she could make her emotions change within a second of blinking.

The feeling of her beside him, with a sense that tugged at his heart strings as it slowly evolved into a desire of need. But none of those things mattered to him now. Those things were just glimmers of a lost man's dreams that would soon fade once he placed the mask of his pain over his true self before the side effects of loneliness took hold and drove him into further into the abyss-but there was a faint glimmer of light that he saw when he saw her standing in the drifts of snow when he returned to Gotham. To war.

He felt a chill enter through his aching bones, as a haze of heaviness pulled at his eyelids. He knew he should sleep, the hours of morning would come quickly, and with the battle that would end with a grim outcome. But he couldn't think about sleep, not when time was the enemy. He guessed that after tomorrow he would be sleeping the eternal rest and that would be his greatest reward for giving Gotham everything...from his last drop of blood and his last breath.

_Bruce, don't me make an escape for a normal life. _He remembered Rachel's words, and he the stabs of his guilt enter his heart. He wanted to marry Rachel once his crusade as Batman was finished, once he feeling could breath the air of a normal life, and to come home from a long, boring day at Wayne Enterprises to her anxious blue eyes and the happy smiles of his children awaiting for his return. He'd never gotten close to that dream, only to the nightmare of allowing the Joker to blow up his childhood sweetheart to hell because he made the impossible choice and gambled with chance never once thinking the dice were rigged.

He lost all normal things of a man's life, waking up to a wife in bed, the laughter of children echoing down the hall and delight of Christmas morning with his family gathering around a tree and enjoying each blissful moment. The life he had chosen when he descended in the bowels of the cave was one to be spent alone and for first time in those ten years, he wanted what most men had. He wanted to embrace the love of family and feel each vivid kiss of his love agaisnt his lips. Bruce wasn't sure what kind of life he would wish for, but he did know, that he wanted something right at this moment of reaching the crossroads of a soldiers path, he didn't want to spend his final night alone.

He sighed, pulled his head away from the armory and dropping the cowl on a nearby chair. A ghostly sense brushed over his tense posture, when he moved to the towards the elevator shaft. He stepped inside the elevator and pressed the button, the doors closed and he removed a key fob from his belt and activated the cave's security system.

* * *

The elevator doors opened and Bruce stepped on the wood flooring of the main library and causally moved to the couch, grabbing a bottle of half empty Gatorade he had been sipping most of the night during his workouts and eased himself slowly and gently on his makeshift bed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with back of his gloved hand and let out a somber breath before slowly closing his tired eyes shut.

The familiar sound of three-inched stiletto heels clicked against the groves of the wood. He instantly opened his eyes, catching a whiff of a luscious feminine scent and feeling a warmth presence. The sharp edges of his thinned lips curved into a small smirk. Only one person he knew was this clever and skillful. Only one person had ever successfully had cracked the code of the Manor's high-governmental leveled security system.

"Good to see you found your way down here, Miss Kyle." Bruce kept the firm smile on his face but he didn't make eye contact.

"You don't happy to see me, Mr. Wayne." He jerked up at the sound of her low, seductive voice, chuckled hollowly finding her pinned against the bookshelf in her full black skin-tight cat suit, displaying a full frontal view of her dangerous curves as her long gloved fingers rubbing over the spines of book covers.

"I just have a lot on my mind." He told her gently as he stood up and finally looked at her, with a steady gaze of his hazel eyes concealed underneath a few bangs.

She shifted her dark eyes at the covers of the dusty collection of books. "You know that do you lack in the taste of proper reading material. I'd recommend reading the _Tale of Two Cities._ It seems fitting for this arising situation upon you."

"Never had a taste for the classics." Bruce gingerly approached her, crossing his arms over his torso as she stepped one inch allowing him to inhale the scent of her chocolate auburn locks.

"Too bad, could have helped you with tomorrows problem." she purred, rubbing one heavy black leather boot against his leg. "Speaking of that topic ...what's your plan of beating these guys. Going to use some of your fancy toys from your growing trust fund to help blow up the city's barricades?"

"I'm not, you are." Bruce formed his lips into a fierce grin as he flipped her so her lithe body was pressed into the spines of the books "I'm going to give you the Batpod, it's a motorcycle with big cannons, I'll need you on the ground opening up the midtown tunnel, it's the only way out."

Selina shrugged, twisting her red lips into a coy smile as she playfully starting unzipping her suit a few inches from her neck. "I thought you didn't trust me with your stuff, Mr. Wayne?" She gave him a pointed look under her mask.

"I'm trusting you to do the right thing, Selina." Bruce said with a sincere voice, running his gloved fingers along the front of her neck, trying not to look down at her impressive cleavage and black lace covered cups. "Answer one question why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious," she replied, arching her back against wooded shelves the bookcase and rubbing her fingers slowly over his plated shoulders. "But of course you're the detective so figure it out."

"I have faith in you, Selina, I always have." His thinned lips formed a honest smile as he used one of his hands to lower the zipper on her suit, exposing more of her creamy flesh to the frosty winter air. He narrowed his eyes darkly, swallowing hard as her hands roamed over his armored chest. "I need why did do you come here?" He gently lowered her hands to her sides, Selina large dark eyes locked with his hazel one with a unnerving and unfazed glare. "Did you come on your know intentions or are you following orders?"

"I'm a cat who walks by herself, Bruce." Selina smirked, defiantly. "I answer to no one, especially masked terrorists that threaten to blow up my home to hell." She slid one of her fingers slowly over his bat insignia. "What about you, handsome? Do you like working alone or are you considering the need of a woman's touch?"

He was doubtful, the last woman he let get this close was Rachel, and when he did, she stabbed him in the back, and it took him eight years to figure that part out, he needed to be loved, cared for, sure to him it sounded pretty selfish, but it's what his heart craved, if he was able to have that...things might have played out differently now.

"I'm considering it, but you'll need to show me what you've got." He gruffly and began to peel away her suit, her cream colored body became exposed as his eyes widened and lips slowly parted. He watched her tongue sway lightly over her teeth as she looked up at him with a daring gaze of molten coffee.

"Careful, you might like it too much," she purred in a low flippant tone.

"I can take whatever you can throw at me, Selina." He growled fiercely against the shell of her ear.

"Are you sure about that," she whispered, bringing her lips closer to his smooth, tensed jaw. "because with me I'm all about risking taking and the high stakes of chances." After a moment of a pause. she lifted her gaze and met his scorching hazel eyes, watching his well-define cheek bones grew sharp underneath his youthful skin as she gulped down and flatted her back against the books. "Are you sure you want to take the risk with me...after what I've done to you." Her voice strained in her throat for a moment before she recovered her thoughts, turning her gaze at the snow flakes hitting the glass window panes. "I'm not a good girl, Bruce, I'm not going to heaven. Maybe tonight you can just give me a piece of what I'll miss once the smoke finally clears."

Bruce allowed his massive hands to firmly grasped her lithe arms, "You don't know if that will happen."

She gave a little shrug, "It doesn't matter anymore. This life is impermanent." She rubbed her lips together. "No matter where you run...you can't escape that truth, Mr. Wayne."

"So you came here to tell that," he give a questioning look, arching his eyebrow as he cupped her cheeks the tips of his fingers treading through her hair. "Or is there something else?"

She narrowed her glossy dark eyes to the floor. "I've spent my whole life not caring about men like you. Rich, pigheaded pricks who hide away in their vaults, swimming in their cash flows while the rest of us struggle to find scraps at your doorsteps."

He looked at her while she looked at the ground. "Not all of us are like that, I really don't feel like the man I used to be anymore, I don't care about the money, the house or even my name, all that matters to me is the safety of the people of Gotham."

"I know you not like those men," she lifted her gaze to him, allowing the shadows of the room cast over her pale skin. "You already prove that..." She allowed her voice to trail and released a frigid sigh, "It's too late to help people that can't help themselves. Just like me, they survive whatever that can manage to fend and take anything that in their reach. But now I can see is that all those people need a chance to live..."

"Then give them a chance to live, Selina." Bruce smiled tenderly and stroked her chin with his thumb. "We can fight for Gotham, end this war, and let this city rebuild itself."

"You think you have a chance of beating Bane," Selina bit down hard into her bottom lip, fighting against the stinging tears building behind her eyes. "He'll kill you this time. He has no weakness."

"Everyone has a weakness Selina, I know of Bane's, and I know yours." Bruce curved the edges of his lips into a warm smile and looked down at her. "Right now, your weakness is me."

Her eyes narrowed, regarding him coolly. "You don't know anything about me, Bruce."

"Well Selina Kyle, I know that right now, you doubt yourself, you wonder if your going to make it out of this alive, and right now, your eyes tell me that you have concern for my well being when I go up against Bane in the morning." His hazel orbs stared deeply into her ones. "You don't need to be scared, I came back for two reasons, one was to save Gotham, the other was you."

"Me," she asked, still feeling a bit uneasy despite her stubbornness.

"I didn't want to leave you, I know there's more to you then meets the eye, Selina and I didn't want Bane to take you away." Bruce caressed his fingers softly on her cheek. "For years I held onto the ideal that someone I cared about loved me, and she did until I couldn't let go of Batman, you care about me for who I am, regardless of whether or not I wear my mask, and I feel the same about you. Everyone can be saved."

She looked at him strangely as she saw the glimmers of hopeful light shining in his hooded eyes and felt her heart beating a steady pace against her chest.

"Not everyone can be saved," she said shifting her body away from him. "That's being realistic."

Bruce held her in place with both arms locking at her shoulders. "Well, I'm going to do everything I can to save you." He leaned down and was about kissed her on the lips but she managed to escape from his grasp and sauntered quickly to the window, folding her arms over her chest as she stood motionless and silent.

"Don't waste you time on me, Bruce." she finally said with a despondent voice, "there's plenty of women in Gotham...the world that deserve you better than me."

He walked over to the window, grabbed her by the arm and turned her on her heels until both of their chests collided with each others and looked steady into her eyes with a molten gaze of dark hazel and said with a firm voice, "I don't care about the women in Gotham," he was nose to nose with her. "I don't care about anyone but you, Selina."

"You don't know what you're saying," she dejected pulling away from him, with a dangerous flash in her eyes.

"No, I do know what I'm saying...once this is over...I plan on living beyond the cave."

She rolled her eyes before replying, "So that's your backup plan?" she asked, giving him a pointed look.

"I don't have a back up plan, Bane will fall, but I just...I want to let you know how I feel about you."

I don't even know why I came here," She said, tightening her jaw as she felt a few small cracks forming on her guarded walls. " I still can't believe that you even talk me after what I did your body...to you."

"I don't care about that, as I told you before I was a bit disappointment, but I know you did it for a reason but I also know you regret it, I can see it in your eyes." Bruce looked at her "I can see it, you feel guilty selling me out to Bane but I know the ground has finally slipped out from under your feet and your trying to stand again."

" Standing on my own two feet," she swallowed, pressing a fisted hand in the center of her chest. " You don't know the hell I've through." She clenched her teeth. " The blood, sweat and tears I have endured all through my life. You never tasted desperate or watched good people that cared about you fall in a grave because of choices you made. The deals you cut with the devil."

"And that's where your wrong Selina, I know about what happened to your mother and your sister in the convent, and I've had to make deals with the devil, I had to work with Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent to fight the mob, only to watch the Joker corrupt him and watch him almost kill a child to prove a point, I...I killed him, I was so concerned with saving the child I didn't care, I had to listen as the woman I loved die because I chose to save Dent in the first place. Not a day goes by I don't regret the actions I did eight years ago, I know I cannot take it back, but I know that moving forward is what you and I need to do to be happy."

"Happiness is a hard thing to collect," she replied, her lips growing firm.

"Then why can't you and I make our own happiness? You use the clean slate and we leave Gotham, leave forever and never look back?"

"You're joking right?" she asked, wearily, creasing her brows.

"No, no I'm not joking." he ran his finger delicately along her jaw.

Selina pulled back, confusion etched across her brow, "Why the sudden change of heart?" she dejected, feeling a tug on her heart strings. " Is it because we're going to die ..." She mashed her teeth, looking softly in his hazel orbs and felt pressure easing in her chest. "Or is it something else?"

" I think already know." Bruce said, quietly, invading her space once more as his breath ghosted over her lips. She tried to step back but he cradled her face into his hand, brushing away the auburn strands off her pale cheek.

" No. I can't do this." She replied with a harden growl, averting her eyes from his deep soulful gaze. " I can't watch you.."

"Selina, I'm going to be fine." Bruce formed his lips into a assuring smile. "live each day like it's your last."

"You're not going to be fine, Bruce." she said with a faltering voice, trying to seal her tears. "You're going to be dead before noon...just like the rest of us." She mashed her teeth against her bottom lip feeling her empty stomach growl with discontentment, and she scoffed the gurgles of starvation and tensed her abdominal muscles to ease devoid forming in her gut.

"Every time I put the cowl on, I could be dead by the end of the battle, but this time, I'm going to take the risk, I want to leave Gotham a tomorrow, and tomorrow will come." Bruce held her securely in his arms, letting her head rest on his hard armored chest.

"Then I guess we're both idiots." She moved twisted her body against his warm grasp, with efficiently, trying to upswing her raging thoughts clotting inside her mind that she didn't want. She armed her right arm with her left gloved hand as her heels clicked on the smooth wooden surface of the floor and she had to choke back the ironic and bitter laugh that was waiting to peal from her lips. She had always been two steps ahead of the game, always capable of dodging the bullets and staring at death in the face. It seemed every time she reached a point of taking a step forward and wiping the ashes of regret from her feet while some nebulous force would prevent her from grasping the freedom she desired every time she stared down at the names etched on marble graves. Death defined her more then courage and more then intense feelings of wanting to get close to greatest treasure she'd love to steal from this impermanent world of black and white.

When she turned around and looked into his determined, calm hazel eyes, all she wanted to do was slap him across the face, shake his body until all the senses of this conclusion seep out of him-but she wanted do to something that was meaningful and well deserved and she doubted herself for a moment of she blinked under his intense stare and felt a whirlwind of emotions take hold of her. It wasn't to be, not this moment when they were fully unmasked in dim light of some candle burning on the coffee tables as she narrowed her eyes, feeling her nerves become tattered and guilt become a cold torment.

She winced again, feeling the hunger curse through her body, and instantly cradled her waist with her arm. Bruce's tall form seemed to cover her own shadow as he stood behind her, shoulders back and arms crossed over his torso and his eyes trained on her fragile expressions as he tried to open his mouth to say something but instead kept his lips set in firm line.

"I know I can't talk you out of backing away from this. It wouldn't suit you anyway." she said bluntly as she took a step forward until she was a fraction away from his body and then she pressed a kiss on the curved corner of his mouth as she whispered in a soft voice, "Is this what you want, Bruce?"

"Yes, yes this is what I want, Selina." Bruce allowed the words to become stretched out with a heavy exhale. He frowned and looked at her with a haze of weariness in his dark eyes. "Is this what you want? I know you're a woman who knows how to take a risk."

She raised her eyebrows underneath the mask up at him and walked to the couch, sitting on the rich pattern cushions, unabashedly caving in her knees against her chest as she did so. "All my life I've the ugliness of death. Bullets fly and graves filled with friends that now nameless faces. I know that death makes us weak but I'm not weak, Bruce. I can face it head on with any hesitation but when I saw you get broken in the sewers by Bane," She swallowed a large gulp down her throat. "I thought I lost you." she allowed those words to melt off her lips. "I can't watch that scene play out again..."

Bruce half-smiled and lowered her legs, letting slender his body glide over her, his large hands moved her hair gently away from her pale skin. "Your not going to lose me Selina, Bane will never break me again, as long as I'm here, you will never have to see the ugliness of death ever again."

She flashed him a tiny coy smiled and shrugged. "Don't make promises you can't keep, handsome."

"Then it's fact, not a promise." Bruce narrowed his gaze down to her, his eyes growing instantly darker and an urgent look passed over his face and then he brought his lips down and let them slide onto the corner of Selina's mouth, tasting her, relishing her with a gentle caress of moist warmth.

She leaned back against the cushions, took a deep, deep breath and tensed her jaw, like she was preparing for some sort of street brawl. She clenched her eyes shut for a few moments and said with an unsteady voice, "I'm not sure if we..."

Bruce placed a finger on her lips and took a breath. A deep, deep breath. "Selina, lets not talk about doubt, before all this happens tomorrow...let me take away the doubt." he said, brushing his lips over her mouth.

"It is tomorrow, Bruce." she said with a breathless sigh, as her mouth fell open a bit and lips tugged against his upper lip. "I want you to take off my mask. Just this once."

Bruce smiled and let his fingers loop into the sides of her jet black domino mask, gently lifting it and her infrared goggles away, letting her face look at his, for the first time he saw the terror and pain that was in her misty eyes, the vulnerability, the need of comfort. "Selina, you can be as real with me as you want, you don't need to feel afraid."

"Afraid?" she regarded him with an darken expression, her large eyes flaring as he saw the white shafts of white around her coffee irises. She swallowed, as he listened to a lump wash down her throat. Her muscles were beginning to tense.

"Selina, just relax okay? For me?" He ran his gloved hands gently along her shoulders.

"You're asking me to show you my vulnerability aren't you?" she snapped, jerking her body away. "We don't even know each other that well to even think of doing this. I betrayed you, remember? My selfish actions made you suffer for all those months of living in hell. So why do you want me to fully unmask for you?"

"I don't care about any of it, all I want to see is you happy...you seem happier when your with me, your different, that person who was trying to survive in this hell hole called a city is gone, your someone else now. I'm just trying to make you feel like you can be human again, that a mask isn't necessary anymore." Bruce looked down at her with a darkly stare. "To be honest...I don't want to wear my mask anymore either, Selina."

"Shut up...you don't know what you're saying." She growled, sounding utterly stricken from breath.

Silence stretched between them like dark cloak suffocating them. It was an unpredictable moment of engulfing fire, dread and uncertainly that had been thundering in his chest, because he sensed the grim outcome of the battle he was heading into within the next few hours. He could see the lines distress on her face, each one had a different emotion etched on her waxen skin, just the same as her red lips and eyebrows twitched. She wore every detail of hidden emotion on her face, sorrow, vulnerably, fear and a smudge of compassion. And she was...

"I just don't know how to feel," she paused, shaking her head. "I don't understand why this happening to our city. I thought I could predict a storm but this has turned out to become a hurricane. I don't know if we'll make it out of alive or survive to live a another day. But I need to know something..."

"What?" He asked gently, cupping her cheek with his warm hand, his eyes creasing as he tilted his head forward just enough that his lips brushed over the pulse point of her neck. When he spoke again his voice was gruff and unsteady. He didn't sound like his usual self. He didn't sound like Batman, either, but the voice was genuine and choked out his raw throat making her pressed against his body as he kissed her sensitive spots on the hollow of her neck.

"If you could have anything right at this moment what would it be, Selina Kyle?"

"Anything..." she stuttered, her voice trailing in the abyss of her soul.

"Yes. Anything...you want."

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, her fingers splaying over his shoulders. "I know you already know my answer."

Bruce began to remove some of the armor from his upper body, leaving his graven torso exposed to the cold air "Oh I have a feeling I know, but tell me anyway."

"And here I thought you were the world greatest detective," she purred against the locks of hair touching the nape of his neck.

Bruce felt the corners of his mouth upturn into a blissful smile. "Oh I claim to be, I still just want to hear you say it." he whispered as he began to suck the side of her curved jaw.

"Fine," she replied, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You, Mr. Wayne."

"Well then Miss Kyle, I'm all yours." he brought his lips up and crushed against hers, full and hard. He wanted her to feel human again, he wanted her to know that she was his as his arms reached around her waist to pull her up against his body. She jolted at the sudden movement, but relaxed in his comforting touch as his hand roamed over the curve of her hip, slowly and hard, her smoking arousal was igniting at the dark, steely look in his eyes.

"Do you want me?" she asked, shaken, her lips brushing over his. Where a scorching, creamy answer would become planted. Truthful and accepting.

"Yes."

He leaned close to her ear and growled, deep and darkly. "Yes, I do." His bought his hot mouth against hers, slipping and rolling with her tongue. His body began to rock with the rhythm coming from hers slender frame until she felt an ignited of a fever burning inside her veins. She breathed against his neck, harshly, nipping at the lope of his ear and panting heavy then expected and then she gritted her teeth feeling a crush of his sudden wave bat against her.

"Take it off," she moaned with a strained voice. "My suit. Take my suit off."

Bruce smiled down at her and began to slowly remove the black skin tight suit, exposing more of her alabaster body to the winter chill engulfing over their feverish bodies, revealing a black lacy bra and panties. "you are so beautiful, Selina."

She smiled up at him with a soft light dazzling in her eyes. "If you want me...you better do it fast. Dawn comes quickly."

"Your turn," he brushed his smooth jaw against her neck. "Take it off."

"You asked," she purred with a low seductive tone while curved her smeared lips into a wicked smirk.


	2. Chapter 2

**Before the Heat of Battle**

**{Part 2}**

* * *

He felt the embrace of flaming warmth erupting within his battered body, Selina unfastened his utility belt snug over his slender hips, tossing it over the cushions a clanked of metal hitting wood echoed throughout the library. Bruce groaned, low and throaty, feeling his tongue penetrate her moistness, his mouth sucked her tongue into his. He kissed her until she was achy, breathless and clinging to him. He closed his eyes as his mind drifted back into the haunting thoughts of his distant past.

_The somber coldness of the afternoon rain pelted over his feverish skin, he stood in front of a grave marked with the name of his cherished friend and childhood sweetheart, his shoes were sinking in the moist earth as the wind buffed his damp chocolate locks of hair. His gloved fingers rubbed against the hard stem of the lush red rose clenched in his hand as he slammed his eyes shut, trying to fight off the smoldering tears welling in his eyes as images of past flashed through his mind like white light, he saw her sweet teal blue colored eyes dazzling in the light of a sun kissed afternoon. Eyes full of strength, life and love. Love that had could have never been his. Beautiful tranquil pools of blue that soothed his soul from the first moment when his youthful hazel stared into them in the garden of Wayne Manor when youth seemed to be perfect and jovial before the gun went off into the night._

_"Master Wayne," Alfred's voice wafted in his ears from behind. Bruce darted open his hazel eyes and looked over his shoulder at the old snow- white haired English men walking toward him with a umbra firmly grasped in his hand. Bruce crouched down on his knees and gently placed the rose against the marble stone of the grave, his gloved hand rubbed over the name etched across : RACHEL DAWES. He silently read out the words underneath that lettering._

_Beloved friend and justice fighter._

_He closed his eyes once more, starting into the eyes of hope, knowing that they were lifeless and nothing but fragment of ash and charred flesh that were collected form the smoldering timbers of the warehouse. He was there in the shadows behind a fire truck when they loaded her body into the back of the ambulance He saw the works of terror from the Joker on the pieces of her body.. singed strands of dark hair, bone and torn flesh that was the color of tar._

_"Sir, you've been out here for hours," Alfred said as he stood beside the slump shouldered billionaire, watching his young charge stare blankly at the grave as rain soaked through his overcoat._

_"I failed her, Alfred." Bruce's voice dejected out a weakly breath. "I loved her. I couldn't save her." He sealed his lips, thinking about how the Joker left with the impossible choice to save Rachel and Harvey Dent...a mocking of chance. "I never got to her the truth, Alfred...if she only stayed at the penthouse, she would of lived." He clenched his jaw together and molded his gloved hand into a fist. "I thought I protect her... I made a promise that night when Crane poisoned her the toxin that I would always be there to save her."_

_"You did protect her, Master Wayne," Alfred said, placing his hand firmly on the young man's tensed shoulder. "I know that you think you've her...she would think that of you, sir. Rachel knew that you had to make the choice. The right choice of saving Gotham's soul..." he lowered his eyes listening to the silent sobs of Bruce Wayne mix with the drops of rain. "She never gave up on you."_

_Bruce swiped the tears from his eyes and nodded grimly, "She told that when Gotham no longer needed Batman. We be together." He straightened up from the ground and looked into Alfred's wintery blue eyes with his watery hazel ones. "There is nothing for me in Gotham. There never was, Alfred." He looked down at his feet and clamped his eyes shut, feeling the urge of his restless and grieving soul consume his thoughts. "I need get out of here for awhile."_

_'Where would you go?" Alfred asked, arching his white eyebrow. He watched Bruce slowly walk toward the gates of the cemetery. The young billionaire turned around and looked at his longtime friend and caregiver with a sullen face._

_"Goodbye Alfred," he said, feeling his heart clench in his chest. "I'll come back when I'm needed again." He turned around and quickly disappeared in the sheets of rain, Alfred stood in the rain, lowering his umbrella as he felt the icy drops drench over his thin strands of white as his head lowered._

_"Gotham will always need you, Master Wayne."_

Bruce became self aware from his memory as he felt her hands push his suit's Kevlar leggings down his hips with a greedy tug. Her knees imprisoned his hips with torturing pressure as his groin began to constricting underneath his boxers, making him grow moist.

He growled with mere pants of breath escaping from his tortured lungs. "Selina-" he rumbled out her name against her waxen skin.

Selina smirked mischievous, her dark coffee orbs gleaming with flares of danger.. "No. You started this, Mr. Wayne." She released a sultry laugh and wrapped her hand around his full, throbbing erection and starting laving his hardness with a soft caress of her fingers.

He grabbed her hands, gripping them tightly and tried to stop her, his torso heaving. Sweat was pouring out of every crevice of his body. But Selina give a good hard squeezed, making him jolt against her. She put her lips against that heaving chest and licked her tongue slowly over his nipple.

"Argh-"

Every part of his body was scorched by the trail of fire her warm tongue left, he was rendered senseless as his deep-set hazel eyes became clouded with hazy gloss and lips firm as pressure took hold and the breath of his lungs betrayed him the moment he felt her long fingers grip over his pulsing length like a vice.

Bruce gritted his teeth together as he felt her own teeth nibble on his firm nipple. Her mouth was one his chest once more, tracing over his scars and the groves of thick muscle, with her hands sweaty and teasing over his aching shaft. She pulled his head down with her arm crooked around his neck and scorched him and explicated come-and get-me kiss, he groaned, low and throaty. Her tongue swayed to the roof of his mouth.

Then it all seemed to erupt within him- the uncontrollable hunger, desire and the gushes of adrenaline coursing a fever in his veins as he settled his body in perfect alignment upon her.

He rested his chin on her shoulder, pressing rough kisses on her hollow between her neck and jaw, his hands swept over the curves of her rocking hips messaging the firmness of her thighs with circular motion of his finger tips, brushing over the scars of her past-knives and cigarette lighters, and shards of broken glass from whiskey bottles, one rough, and deep one covering her side, and instantly his eyes seemed to grow darker as his gruff voice brushed over the moist spot of the shell of her pulsing ear as he demanded, "What is this?"

She clenched her jaw, feeling slightly annoyed at his tone. "Just a memento of mistake I greatly paid for in the teen years." she shrugged underneath his body weight. "It's nothing to get upset about...I deserved it."

"Like hell you did, Selina." he grounded out.

She clenched her jaw tightly, and his lips were devouring hers again as his strong, bronze arms locked her against the cushions. She was trapped in the waves of radiating heat expelling from his rising torso pressing hard over her breasts, his hands sliding, slipping over her hips while her legs latched over his waist and her toned arms secured themselves around his neck. Then she was sinking into the cushions, deeply that in enthralled her as his hardness rubbed over her moist inner thighs.

His weight on top of her trim body was mesmerizing, and the way his starving body rocking a soothing rhythmic flow into hers was just as enticing and smoldering to her-suffocating the breath, rawness of her lungs. She splayed her palms over his graven stomach, fingers sliding over the hard muscles of his six-pack and feeling the roughness of the scars.

Her jagged nails grazed over one of the wounds, underneath his navel, "Where did you get this?" she moaned down the hollow of his throat.

Bruce could feel her nipples as they pushed and strained against his chest as though they were trying to siphon nourishment to his heaving chest. His lips became set as he lowered his chin slightly down and descend his slick, drenched body further to the arm rest of the couch as his mouth parted over on her one breath and his lips began to suck out her essence with gentle pressure.

He answered, breaking his breath away from her lips as his upper tugged lightly on the corner of her mouth "The Narrows. A young sixteen year old was about to get raped by one of Johnathan Crane's thugs. I intervene and got a shard of glass through my nomnex armor." He explained with a heavy exhale buffeting over her jaw. "The girl was safe. That's all that mattered." And then he started to slide his fingers down her panties when she arched her hips off the cushions. He understood her signal and slipped them down as she obligingly raised her knee off his side and rested the heel of her boot on his back and removed one leg from the lacy garment. Selina then reached down, lowered the panties over her other leg, and tossed them to the floor.

Bruce moved his hand to the softness of warm flesh between her legs and slipped a finger partially into her wetness. With a quick shallow breath, she parted her legs and whispered as her red lips curled into naughty smile, "How much time do we have?" Her tone tranquil against his throat as her hands curled over his waist band. Her sweaty knuckles dug into his skin. She rolled the silky material off his hips and lower to his thighs. She arched one eyebrow as he jerked a thundering thrust against her.

"Not long," he growled deep and abysmal, making the color of her large coffee brown eyes shift into a darker, complex hue as he dropped his mouth over her lips, kissed her, and synchronized the rhythms of his swirling tongue and trembling finger.

She grinned, feeling the heat radiate from his length. "Then you better start you engines, Mr. Wayne." she said, gasping at the ever deepening strokes probing inside her slippery softness.

"Selina," he groaned, panting large gulps of air. He was becoming a slave to the building pressure as he started growing larger and heavier, he pressed her hip with his other hand while his fingers twirled inside her pulsing core, feathery and deeper. Friction was building between their bodies, they were on the edge of reaching the point of no return as adrenaline rippled into their veins and bodies became tensed with blood gushing in every limb and muscle.

"Something wrong?" she asked, with a teasing tone. Selina felt herself tightening around his fingers that would soon be replaced by something much larger and dangerous satisfying.

"Are you ready for this war, Selina Kyle." he asked as gently withdrew his fingers but kept his hand on her mound. He wasn't sure that he was to survive, but he knew that she given strength, a glimpse of a romance that would be waiting for him beyond the shores of Gotham-something about her kept his fears of death eased as he felt the warmness of her flesh folds drip over the crease of his inner thigh. Something that his was preparing to admit as he remembered when he was in the pit and dream about her as he mending his broken bones while hanging against the dingy ropes, positioning his body back into proper added, "Are you prepared to start fresh?"

Selina sat up slightly off the cushions and said, "Freedom always comes at a price, Bruce." she mashed her teeth into her bottom lip. "Nothing we have is ever free. Not even our own lives."

Bruce formed his thinned lips into a sulky frown as he felt her abdomen flex underneath him and the tilt of rotation of her hips to accept his throbbing shaft. She pulled his head down, urging his lips closer. Their lips touched, her breasts were agaisnt his, her rose-tipped nipples burrowing in the indents of his chest.

"Come with me," she implored a soft breath against the corner of his mouth.

His pulsing shaft was statically positioning itself between her legs, and Selina slowly parted them so that the throbbing head of his erection could slowly passed the sensitive valley of her womanly desires. She gently thrust her hips upward and found that doing so, his smoldering flesh nestled into the warm moist folds of the portal of her core. She continued her sensual rhythm as her breathing became deeper and unsteady.

When she started to gyrate in slow insistent circles, Bruce responded by rocking with Selina's every empowering thrust.

"Bruce... ...Dark Knight..." She managed to scream out between thrusts as her hands messaged the muscular planes of his hands in the motion that matched the rhythmic pulsations that developed inside of her. Between laboring pants of breath and frenzied writhing, she continued with a breathless, strained voice as desire bubbled inside her gut, "...this ...is ...what...I want."

"Selina, I have to get ready..." he panted out, pulling out of her. "We have to get ready."

"We have a few minutes." she urged with a feverish whisper realizing what he meant. Her teeth dug roughly over the skin of his collar bone. She felt his body shuttered with her lip suction roaming down his chest as she murmured agaisnt his heart as a primal rhythm continued to increasingly beat agaisnt the wetness of her dark void. She pulled her lips away as her hands idly moved down his back, mentally counted the fourteen moles in between his shoulder blades and groves of muscles as her fingertips rubbed over the texture. She looked over his shoulder watching the different, random snow flakes falling over the window panes as shafts of dawn piercing through the heavy cloud cover outside. With several flutters of her lashes she tried to fight the tears welling behind her eyes as her body tensed tightly against him.

He blinked the drenched bangs out of his eyes, staring at her, thoroughly and thoughtfully with stillness whirling in his irises of forest green and gold. She was enchanting to behold within those frozen moments as time brushed over them, his fingers light grazed over her peppered freckles of under large coffee-colored eyes as the corners of his thinned lips upturned into a cozy smile as he became entranced by her beauty, silky alabaster skin and curve of her crimson tear dropped shaped lips that parted to release a gentle breath against his feverish skin.

Bruce upturned the crinkles of his lips into a light smirk and then he lowered his lips to her breast and gently rolled the dusky pink tip with his tongue and whispered, "I think I handle a few more minutes." his voice rumbled a vibration against her throat.

Selina quickly sheathed his glistening member and then lay back invitingly parting her legs as the heels of her boots rested gently on his shoulders, the sharp edges gleaming in the dim lit, as she fully exposed her damp petals, opened and waiting -hoping and needing to be impaled by his hot bulging shaft. A gift to someone she trusted, cherished and loved. To someone that saw behind the layers of the masks she wore to hide the real woman underneath the concealed pain and fear that swirled within the depths of her captivating eyes.

Bruce settled down fully against her, even on her in the darkness and the glimmers of dawn's early light, her rounded breasts were beautifully formed and rose with every heaving breath. He positioned himself comfortably over her, kneeling into the cushions, gently caressing her aching breast with the softness of his fingers.. He pushed his entire body weight down on her writhing body. As they kissed, he guided his pulsing shaft to her passion-moisten depths, slowly and carefully he eased himself barely inside the deepest part of her.

Selina clenched and shivered but raised her hips slightly to further drive his swollen saber into her broiling, wet sheath. Bruce lowered himself again and as Selina heaved in passion, resisting flesh split and he slid into her slowly and gently until he was completely inside of her.

"Are you alright," he rasped with his graveling voice, when she suddenly, lowered her legs and encircled him making him dive deeper. He felt her pulsating -contracting and releasing his erection until he felt the urge of freedom and slowly his milky gush filled her.

"I'm fine," was her verbal reply, pleasure was consuming every part of her but her body language said much more as they began bucking, arching and colliding into almost perfect waltz. With every withdrawal of warm milk , she arched her hips and heaved beneath him as she felt the liquid fire seep into her rattling core. Her voice was fading into mewls of utter pleasure. "Yes...yes...yes.." She parted her lips and released louder and high pitched moans.

Bruce kept up with the rhythm that Selina had set and maintained it restlessly. His hazel eyes became clouded with darker haze as sweat rolled off his lips and down the roundness of his recessed jaw. With each stroke, he slid his engorged flesh completely into her blooming folds. Their breaths were changing into her heavy gasps -as though the air had thinned around them. Her body rose up and pushed as he drove his length to its hilt with each thrust at a increasing pace. His mouth was latched against her neck, suckling over the creamy flesh and the brush of freckles. His was breathing fast and hard. Selina's breaths came in punctured gasps.

He could no longer resist the increasing passion and torture, her wriggling against him, her sighs, her legs pulling him into her ever deeper. With one thrust, he shuddered and exploded inside of her. She could feel his seed spill into her moisten depths, feel the warm milk drown her core with flaming heat. Dazed and motionless and still inside Selina, Bruce could feel her early spasm contracting against his shaft and began a slow short rhythmic stroke that soon became full lengh plunges of his still aroused flesh.

Selina began to heave and writhe. naked flesh against naked flesh. Bruce groaned breathless, increasing the pace, the pleasure and penetration. Each thrust was torture to his body. He yelled as his body quaked and he shot another gush of hot release into her, and he was lost everything. Every thought of his part, fear of death and senses as he inhaled her intoxicating scent. He threw his head back as a explosion of white fire flashed before his eyes.

"Selina," her name peeled off his salty lips as his body started to tremor with the grinding of her hips into him. She heaved breaths, convulsed at the chains of explosions shaking her deep core. The sensual waves continued as Selina was seized with great shuddering and clenching spasms that squeezed and milked the throbbing heat within. The last of his throbbing had shot her like a bullet at the right spot, and she dropped her one heel to the floor limply and rested her head on his shoulder as she came, ghosting a hot breath against the shell of his ear and hissing a foreign language as he gathered her against his hot-blooded body.

When he finally eased himself out of her, they felt the bones melt under their rose tinged skin, but they were stiff and didn't dare to move a muscle. She buried her face into the crook of his arm, inhaling the glaze, hot salty scent of him as she rubbed her lips over his skin, caressing and touching him everywhere to release the all the scorching, shattering moments of departing from their embrace.

She cringed slightly, and she felt his soft lips kiss the side of her cheek, then the groves of her neck. But she knew that this enchanting moment was now just a dream to let back on once they put on their masks and became Batman and Catwoman. Warriors and soldiers to enter No Man's Land and battle for the lives of Gotham on the snow covered streets. Bruce slid his clammy palm over her chest and placed it gently on her pounding heart, easing the rapid beats with a soothing, assuring touch.

She pulled away, looking into his deep, soulful hazel eyes as he leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her perfectly arched lips and kissed her with every ounce of strength he had left welling inside of him and he whispered against her slack jaw, "It's time."

She nodded grimly, feeling the dread crept them her throbbing bones but she kept her dark eyes settled on his calm hazel one and smiled. "Let's go save Gotham, Mr. Wayne."

He nodded before placing a kiss on her forehead.

* * *

The hour of dawn approached, Selina zipped up her suit, fully to her neck, her dark coffee brown eyes stare at the snow descending from the clouds above, she removed lipstick from a compartment of her belt and quickly dabs her bottom lip and rubbed until her tear dropped shaped lips are fully painted from crimson. She lifted her chin, feeling the coldness of the snow brushed over her cheeks as her thick lashes fluttered them out of her eyes, she turned her back, heels mounted on the ice covered step as she scanned her weary gaze at the vast garden of Wayne Manor. She stiffened her spine as her breath becomes crystallized the moment it escapes from her raw throat.

She heard the sound of boots crunching in the snow, and turned slowly around as her large brown eyes locked with Batman's intense hazel ones. Under the cowl, Bruce saw the semblance of despair etched over her alabaster features as he watched her hands squeeze into tight fists. He stepped down, snow flakes sliding over the curvatures of his cowl. He stood behind her and encircled her waist with his gauntlet arms, pulling her back to his armored chest as he turned her around, lifting her chin with his gloved curled fingers.

"What ever happens ...I just want you to know.." he grimaced slightly, his molten hazel eyes brimming with moisture."I couldn't have done this without you, Selina Kyle."

She took a step back back he did a quick embrace, wrapping his arm around her waist and crushing her lips with a passionate kiss as the snow grew heavier over their bodies.

He closed his eyes and saw darkness to the world around him, but he felt her lips against his lips as she wrapped her arms over his cape and he knew the truth...he was in love with her. He wanted to live a life with her ...without the masks and without the regret of dying alone. He embraced her tighter against him and let himself spend those few moments of living with her before she broke away and moved down the steps towards the garden not knowing that they would ever confess their love as the sounds of war drums echoed in the frosty air.

"Coming handsome?"

Batman opened his eyes, meeting her stare from a brief moment and nodded to her.

Although he was a wounded solider...he wasn't alone in this battle.


	3. Chapter 3 Note One shot & Story ideas

**Authors Note:**

**Thank you so much for reading all my stories. You're all amazing. I have some few details to reveal**

**Rose in Hades- The sequel to Black Lace will have it's first chapter posted by the first week of December.  
**

**I fine being a writer for this fandom is very rewarding so I'm doing something very different. I'm letting you pick the one shot ideas and even the story ideas. My gift to all of you. Because you're the ones that make these stories come alive on this site and treasured.**

**Each one shot or request can be about anything to do with Bruce Wayne ( Christian Bale) & Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway). Can have any villain, crossover...anything you desire I will write for you and with you. **

**Here's some bases of ideas **

**A) Christmas One shots- romance, smut and lots of snow and Christmas cheer.  
**

**B) Selina and Bruce meeting at a younger age (Pre-Batman Begins or even teenage years)**

**C) Disney themed - Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid...etc.- lots of smut.  
**

**D) Post- Rises lives of Bruce and Selina- pregnant-careers **

**E) AU themed- fantasy, futuristic and any type of movie  
**

**Let me what you like, what and desire through the review/comments and we'll have some fun with the Bat and Cat.**

**Thank you.**


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